How does the federal government assist the poor? Is the level of support declining? How does our economic compassion for the poor compare to other industrialized countries? What are the specific poverty programs? Who gets the benefits? What change in poverty programs policies could have a huge positive impact on poor families with children and cost nothing?

Dick’s guest is Dr. Tim Smeeding, one of the nation’s leading experts on poverty. He is the Lee Rainwater Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics . He was director of the Institute for Research on Poverty from 2008–2014.

He was the founding director of the Luxembourg Income Study from 1983-2006. Professor Smeeding’s recent work has been on social and economic mobility across generations, inequality of income, consumption and wealth, and poverty in national and cross-national contexts.

His books include: SNAP Matters: How Food Stamps Affect Health and Well Being (Stanford University Press, 2015); Monitoring Social Mobility in the 21st Century (Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2015); From Parents to Children: The Intergenerational Transmission of Advantage(Russell Sage Foundation, 2012); Persistence, Privilege and Parenting: The Comparative Study of Intergenerational Mobility (Russell Sage Foundation, 2011); The Handbook of Economic Inequality (Oxford University Press, 2009); Poor Kids in a Rich Country: America’s Children in Comparative Perspective(Russell Sage Foundation, 2003); and The American Welfare State: Laggard or Leader?, (Oxford University Press, 2010). Dr. Smeeding earned a B.A. at Canisius College, an M.A. at the University of Connecticut, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in economics at the University of Wisconsin.

His recent work also has been on inequality, wealth, and poverty amongst elders, children and young unmarried families, including the children of immigrants in a cross-national context.

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